Shadow/Illusion Knitting

While I'm on vacation, I'm still knitting for others, finishing up Christmas gifts. But I brought a project out of hiding for *gasp* myself.

I wanted to do illusion knitting so I started a piano scarf, oh, about 4 months ago. It's coming along slowly because I keep getting distracted with non-me knitting. Winter will be over by the time I get this done, but really, it's more for the looking right now than it is for the wearing.

For Ravelry folks: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/counterpoint-scarf

Illusion knitting means that when viewed straight on, you have a typical design. In this case, the design is just black and white stripes.

Simple stripes, right?

Ok, so this was the harder part - trying to photograph the illusion.

When viewed from a different direction, we have the beginnings of a piano keyboard.

Neat, huh?

I have a lot of work to do, but it's exciting to see the progress!

Mitts!

I found a really great pattern for fingerless mitts. It's simple but looks so good! They are the Alice Mitts on Ravelry. Apparently inspired by Alice from Twilight, although I never paid that much attention to the movie. Anyways, they knit up fast and just look really good.

For Christmas, I made Windy City scarves for my girl friends and gave them the option of a hat or a pair of mitts in matching colors. All of them chose mitts.

The first pair completed is the Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool in a beigey tweed which, it's turning out, I'm loving A LOT.

Here is the scarf. The Windy City scarf has a hole in it that allows you to tuck the opposite end through so it doesn't come undone in the wind. Or during snowball fights. Or while running away from the crazed snow monster.

Without a hand in them, the mitts look like those candies. With a hand, I think they are pretty nifty looking.


The remaining mitts will match these scarves

My girlfriends will look quite snappy this winter.